Yesterday the long-developing ties between two Republican super PACs and Mitt Romney’s campaign grew stronger when the campaign announced that veteran GOP strategist Ed Gillespie would come aboard as a senior adviser. Gillespie’s a found of and adviser to the American Crossroads super PAC. Just another instance of non-coordination, if recent history is any guide.

Several politically active 501(c)(4) groups that don’t disclose their donors have received multimillion-dollar contributions from groups that are familiar players in Republican circles, OpenSecrets Blog has learned.

Richard Lowrie, Jr., a Wells Fargo financial analyst in a small town in Ohio, is the man behind Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. In 2008, Lowrie contributed the legal maximum of $2,300 to Romney’s presidential campaign, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics. So far this year, he’s only given $500 to Cain.

Netflix’s prices aren’t the only thing that are going up. The video rental company has also been increasing its footprint in the nation’s capital. During the past three months, it spent more than $100,000 on quarterly lobbying for the first time in company history.

President Barack Obama returned Wednesday night to a land where campaign cash has flowed for him like milk and honey: New York City. Of every $20 Obama raised when he ran for president in 2008, $1 came from someone in New York City. And as he battles for re-election, Obama is hoping to keep his New York City supporters motivated to again open their pocketbooks for him.

During 2009 and 2010, labor unions reported spending a combined $46.7 million on messaging designed to aide their preferred federal political candidates, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. This figure represents 16 percent of all such spending by non-party committees — the lowest amount in years.

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